>> if the president had a mandate, nancy pelosi would be the speaker of the house. >> the same question i put to gene sperling. how confident are you as these first face-to-face negotiations began, there will be a deal that you and your colleagues can support? >> very confident. there is an opportunity the president has to lead the country in a way that he wanted to back in 2008. there is a benefit to limited government. the president did not have it in 2009 when there was an expectation. listen, this move forward with the agenda. now, there is a restraining influence. i think there is an obscenity for both of these men, the state senate, their dispositions to come up with a remedy to get it done. >> would be better if it was just the two of them? >> are you stringing me out? >> well, they both have temperaments that can get to yes and that is a good thing in leaders. >> thank you for joining us. >> great, thank you. one of the players in these negotiations. thank you for that republican perspective. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national ca